If you're ready to stop wishing for success and instead, have a strategy that takes your photography business to the next level, join us inside AMPLIFY! My lifetime-access, group coaching program that will help you take action, overcome blocks & challenges, and support you as you expand through all seasons of business growth.
--
Hello and welcome to the She Calls Her Shots Podcast! In today's episode I'm sharing the most valuable lessons I've learned in the last 15 years as a wedding photographer.
I'm diving into how, along my journey, I've been able to:
In today's episode I'm sharing all of the details around how I've been able to turn my business from a hobby into a thriving, full-time venture!
I'm excited for you to join me along the journey... let's go!
If you're ready to create more momentum and visibility inside your business (meaning: more inquiries and more booked clients) -- you'll want to join me for my next free workshop. This workshop will be interactive meaning you get real-time coaching & strategies to grow your business. Head over to heykristamarie.com/workshop to save your seat.
Ways we can work together:
I'D LOVE TO CONNECT WITH YOU!
If you're ready to stop wishing for success and instead, have a strategy that takes your photography business to the next level, join us inside AMPLIFY! My lifetime-access, group coaching program that will help you take action, overcome blocks & challenges, and support you as you expand through all seasons of business growth.
--
Hello and welcome to the She Calls Her Shots Podcast! In today's episode I'm sharing the most valuable lessons I've learned in the last 15 years as a wedding photographer.
I'm diving into how, along my journey, I've been able to:
In today's episode I'm sharing all of the details around how I've been able to turn my business from a hobby into a thriving, full-time venture!
I'm excited for you to join me along the journey... let's go!
If you're ready to create more momentum and visibility inside your business (meaning: more inquiries and more booked clients) -- you'll want to join me for my next free workshop. This workshop will be interactive meaning you get real-time coaching & strategies to grow your business. Head over to heykristamarie.com/workshop to save your seat.
Ways we can work together:
I'D LOVE TO CONNECT WITH YOU!
Hello, hello and welcome. You are listening to the she Calls Her Shots podcast, the show that empowers photographers like you to take inspired action and earn more money. Is a full-time photographer and business owner. I'm Krista Marie, and my mission is to help you build a thriving photography business that creates more wealth and freedom in your day-to-day life, and I'm excited to share that. Today's episode is the first episode in our official rebrand.
Speaker 1:If you noticed, we have brand new cover art for the podcast today and I wanted to just give a shout out and thank you to every single listener who had a research call with me. I just want you to know how incredibly helpful it has been to help me further define and zoom in on how I can make an impact on photographers and help you build a more thriving business. So thank you so much for every single person who volunteered to have a call with me. I just want you to know I appreciate it so much, and in today's episode, I really wanted to work through what I have learned in the last 15 years of growing my photography business. After having these calls and understanding that we are all on our own unique journeys as photographers, I really wanted to come in and share the lessons that I have learned from 15 years of being in business as a photographer. Not only that, but you'll hear in my story how I was able to take my business, which started in Florida, and move it across the country to California and completely start over and build my brand in an entirely new part of the country. I also wanted to share a little bit about how I am making the shift from wedding photography to brand photography and really going into an entirely brand new market really confidently and being able to book clients. So I just I wanted to share my journey and some lessons and hope that it helps you understand a little bit more about where I'm coming from, the journey that I've been on as a photographer, as a business owner, and to hopefully inspire you to meet you where you are and to feel like this is a journey that you can also go on.
Speaker 1:Of course, it will look really unique and have your own unique twists and turns and and storylines behind it, but to really understand where this all started we need to rewind everything back to 2001 when, on my 13th birthday, I got my first ever film SLR camera and let me tell you I brought that camera with me everywhere. I loved that I could capture memories and really just create beauty from my experiences, even though the majority of the photos I took were of trees and nature and camping trips with my family. Honestly, I spent a few years and really a whole lot of development trips to Walgreens growing my photography skills. But here's the thing if you also started, if you're like Chris, that sounds like me. I also started on a camera when I was in high school or in middle school or when I was young. As the cost of film got higher and as my extracurricular time you know, available time got lower, my priority started to shift and when I entered high school, my camera honestly found a really comfortable new home on my bookshelf and it sat there and it collected dust for quite some time.
Speaker 1:But then let's fast forward. Seven years later, it's my 21st birthday. Maybe eight years later, my 21st birthday and I bought myself my first ever digital SLR camera. And I know you're thinking, chris, so your 21st birthday, that's how you splurged. The answer is yes, that is how I splurged. That was what I wanted to do. I have always been someone that, whenever I am passionate about something like it is usually the thing that lights me up the most and that's what I want to spend my money on.
Speaker 1:So when I turned 21, I was in the middle of pursuing my college degree. So I was in the middle of my college sophomore year and I felt the calling again to pursue photography and I could feel deep down that it was time for me to invest in a digital camera. This was a time in whenever, that was for my 21st birthday. So 14 years ago, so 2010,. If I'm doing the math correctly, well, 2009, 2010.
Speaker 1:Digital cameras were really just kind of like in their first few years of becoming accessible to people. Prior to that, when I had first got my film camera, when I turned 13, digital cameras were like over 10 grand like just for the camera, because the technology just wasn't quite there yet. So when I turned 21, it was kind of the first age of having those intro models, digital SLR cameras and so I just decided you know what, now is the time. And as soon as that Canon Rebel camera arrived, that passion that I felt for photography when I was a teenager ignited all over again and again. I brought my camera with me everywhere.
Speaker 1:But this time I also had to stretch myself because I was branching out as I learned then how to edit photos, how to export photos, what do I want my style to look like, how do I want you know? What presets do I want to use? That was something I was really, you know, trying to figure out at the time was how do I make my photos and the editing look consistent so that I can actually start making this a thing that I do more regularly. So there was a bigger learning curve this time around, because it wasn't just show up, take photos, develop the film. There you go. Now there was this entirely new part of photography that I had to learn and teach myself, and again, this was in 2010. This is well before. There were photography courses online, and like the workshops and all of the information that we have accessible now to photographers was really not a thing back then.
Speaker 1:So it was a lot of trial and error and figuring things out on my own, and at the time I'll be honest I didn't really have any big goals to make it a lifetime career. I just wanted to be able to use my talents, my creativity and my free time pursuing something that I was passionate about and, honestly, nothing could have stopped me from getting new photography clients at the time, because I didn't have the pressure of telling myself this has to be a full time job, I have to make this work. Because I didn't have that pressure, what I allowed myself to do was just get fully creative and be fully present, and I just really was focused on gifting other people with my talents, and so I was taking on all sorts of sessions and creative projects. Some of them were paid, some of them are unpaid, but I really felt like I was living the dream. And if we fast forward just a year, it's 2011,.
Speaker 1:I booked my very first wedding client, like someone actually paid me to show up on their wedding day to take photos for them, and I well, first of all, the nerves were high, even though I had spent about the last year before second shooting with a friend who also had a photography business. So I had a lot of experiences. At least on a wedding day, I had some experience of what it was going to be like, what it was going to flow like, but never before had the pressure been on me to actually be the person to capture it, and in that moment it was terrifying and it was so scary. But on the other side of that is when it finally clicked and I realized I really wanted to be able to pursue photography as a full-time career. Having that feeling and that taste of knowing this is what it feels like to book your first like real client and not that my clients before hadn't been real clients, but they were all people I knew. They were friends, they were people in my local community, and so there was pressure that I put on myself. But it wasn't quite the same as when you get someone who doesn't know you, who has entrusted you with one of the most you know an important moment in their life. So, whether you're thinking of wedding photos or even family photos or capturing maternity sessions, like these are people's precious moments and memories. And when someone books you for the first time who you don't know, on the other end of that you're like how do I do this more?
Speaker 1:So at the time, the thing that I was struggling with was I was so close to receiving my college degree. I was like a year away from graduating with my bachelor's in human resource management and everyone around me was telling me basically how impractical it would be to try and start my own business right At the time what I was like 22, obviously didn't have any experience building a business at that point, everyone told me at that point, everyone looked at what I did was a hobby right. So all the money that I made in my business, the weddings I continued to book, the things I continued to do everyone kind of still looked at me and treated it like a hobby. And what did that mean? Well, that meant that I also treated it like a hobby right, like I wasn't truly looking at it as if this were a growing business. So I didn't really feel like I had a real business. I felt like I was too young, I didn't have enough experience, I couldn't make this a real job, I would just struggle to make money.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing I was not only surrounded by other people's doubt, but all of their doubt started to creep in and I started to feel not only the weight of their doubt, but that turned into this immense feeling of guilt, because even though I wanted to take my business full time, I wanted so badly to do that. I had just meant four years and, honestly, thousands of dollars in pursuit of this college degree and it felt really selfish of me to do that, both to myself but also to my parents. I felt like I wasn't deserving of being able to grow my business more than it being just a hobby, and I felt like I needed to go down the route that was being paid for me right Get the college degree, get the job, do the things that society has told me to do, because that's the practical way for me to have my life. Like that was just the path that was being paved. So, if we fast forward a few years, I had spent some time working full time, so I graduated with my degree. I got a full time job, still was focusing on growing my quote unquote little business or hobby business on the side, and wedding clients were starting to book me again. I was getting more and more clients that had never met me before and I started to realize like this is actually kind of becoming a thing right. I had moved past mostly just booking referrals and people I knew, and I was starting to feel like my business was becoming known for something. I finally felt honestly like I was starting to make it, and in between 2012 and 2014, I'm going to skim over these years only for the sake of time, but I want you to know.
Speaker 1:A lot happened in those two years. I had moved across the country from Florida to California for six months. I ended up having to move back to Florida where I live for another two years, but in that time I had tasted what it felt like to live in, like the dream place right. I had moved from Florida to California, even if just for a short amount of time, and when I had to come back to Florida six months later, I felt it. I felt it I'm like I have to go back. This is where I meant to be. I meant to be in California and it took two years of me being back in Florida to finally make it happen.
Speaker 1:But in that time, in that initial first year, six months year back in Florida, I really started to question whether I'd ever be able to make it happen. I didn't think that I'd be able to go back to California. It already was wild that I was able to move out there the first time. How in the world could I possibly make that happen again? So while I was still taking on weddings and engagements in Florida, I kind of had to readjust and restart my business in Florida again and the energy behind my business, even though I was still booking things and everything, because I was only gone to California for six months, I still had some momentum, I still had some clients, I still had some leads here in Florida I say here here in Florida that I was looking after but the energy drastically shifted.
Speaker 1:I started to feel really stuck. Because here's the thing I was at that point three years into my business and in my head I kept feeling this, feeling like I should have grown more, my business should be further along, like I should be booking more clients and doing more things, and just all of these I should have done better. Thoughts were starting to cloud my head. So six months, two years prior, I was living the dream, booking all these clients, that and I was just so excited that people were paying me that I had never met before and how quickly. Six months to a year later, all of a sudden, now all of those should have thoughts should have done better, I should be further along really started to cloud my judgment. And even though I could justify that it was because of right, like moving to California for six months and some big shifts that had happened in my life and in my business, I still blame myself and I started questioning my talent and my worth as a photographer Right those why, why haven't I done this? Why haven't I done this? Really started to dig really deep, to question my own worth, and I looked often at other photographers around me and I started to feel really trapped in that comparison. I guess I wanted what they had. I wanted to be back in California taking dream photos. I wanted to be booking those dream clients and just spending the majority of my time doing photography when in reality, I was still working full time in Florida and growing my business on the side. I wanted more but honestly, I felt so defeated and I didn't know how to bring back that spark and that motivation. Finally, january 2014. So I've been back in Florida for two years.
Speaker 1:Something shifted. I think. To be perfectly honest and frank with you, I got to a point where that negative energy was no longer serving me. I was finally tired of saying you know, one day, if I can move back to California, if I can grow my business, if I can go full time, if I can book dream clients, I think I got so tired of that if energy and that negative energy that I decided that something had to change and I began to realize that that desire of wanting to move back to California, the desire to want to grow that wildly successful photography business, it was no longer something I wanted to do or should do. The conviction really came in and I realized this is something I must do, I have to do this. This is my calling as a creative, this is what I meant to do.
Speaker 1:And so in that moment I can't remember the exact moment when it happened, but I can very distinctly put myself back in the timeframe when I lived out this shift I fully allowed myself to believe that what I wanted was possible. Like, truly and authentically. If you had met me in that window of time I would say it was about a three month window, which I'll get into If you had met me and asked me oh hey, who are you? What do you do? I would have told you I'm a photographer and I'm moving to California. And you would have been like oh cool, like what's prompted that? Like what? Why do you want to move there? And I just spoke so confidently because I realized this was inevitable and I had to treat it like it was inevitable if it was ever going to happen, if I didn't believe that it was possible fully. How in the world would I do the actions needed in order for it to actually come to life? So this shift didn't happen overnight. I need you to know that, right.
Speaker 1:I let myself sit in these feelings for probably a year and a half, two years, and. But I finally became ready to claim what I truly wanted and I gave myself permission to take action, as if what I wanted was already happening. Right, I need you to hear that part. I allowed myself to take action as if the things that I desired were already happening. They were already in momentum. And while there were a lot of tactical things that I did to create the change, put the things in momentum, I the big thing is, I allowed myself permission to create that reality the way that I wanted to see it happen. I knew what I wanted and I wasn't going to let anything stop me.
Speaker 1:And when I allowed myself to fully believe that that dream was possible building the dream business, going full time, living in the place I wanted to live like, doing the things that otherwise had felt impossible when I started to fully believe that it was possible, I stopped doubting myself and I allowed myself to take that inspired action towards what I wanted, and I needed to hear that this self doubt shift again did not happen overnight, but I finally became aware enough of the fact that something needed to change If I wanted my future to look different, I had to do things differently. So instead of spending that energy doubting how it would ever happen, or how can I do this, or this seems impossible, or I need to save so much money, or I need to blah, blah, blah all of these doubts and fears that would come up, instead of focusing my energy there, I spent my free time doing everything that I could think of that felt good to make it possible. Right, and I'm talking. This was again at the time I was still working full time in like not in my business, like for someone else in a company, and this meant spending my lunch breaks listening to music that uplifted me and just closing my eyes and literally imagining myself being in California. I would often take my lunch breaks in Florida, outside in the sunshine, and I would literally sit there with my eyes closed, feeling the sun on my face, and just imagine that I were doing that in California and letting myself fully feel what that would feel like and what that experience would be like.
Speaker 1:Whenever I would leave work to go to the grocery store at night again, I would put some music on. I'd put some inspiring music. I would walk around the store and I would imagine that I was grocery shopping in my life in California. So I would literally in my head, pretend that I was already living the life I wanted in California. What would I cook for myself? What ingredients would I be getting? What would I be making for dinner? Like I went fully in and bought into the belief that what I wanted was possible. And I also took action Right. So I went home at night and I worked on my resume.
Speaker 1:I worked on applying for jobs in California because I allowed myself to believe that, yes, the dream is to go full time and to shoot dream clients, but I just got to get there Right. Like I just need, I just need something that will help me actually get to California and make that transition easier. So I applied for jobs, even though that wasn't the big, big dream. How much of a dream would it be to have a job that pays me to move out there, to start to build out this new life? So every single night I'd pour myself a glass of wine, I'd work on my cover letter, my resume, and I started applying for jobs like crazy, every single night. If I was qualified for it, I was applying for it Like that was my mindset. And here's the thing you'll never believe what happened after three months of living in this energy and I need you to hear it was three months, so this wasn't a all of a sudden. One week I decided I made the shift. I lived in a different energy and it just happened. But I do think it's remarkable that after three months of fully letting myself day to day, day in, day out, embody and live in this energy, what I had thought to be impossible just six months before became my reality.
Speaker 1:I was offered a new job in California. And not only was I offered the job, but they also Paid for me to move out, so they gave me a moving bonus. But here's the thing, here's, here's the funniest part. Do you know what that company was? Do you know what they did? They were creating a brand new 3d camera. They were a photography focused company. When I say, the stars aligned right.
Speaker 1:I was applying for jobs all over the place, like in healthcare positions like recruiting positions in I mean a million different places, right, a million different types of businesses. There was a camera company looking for a role that I was qualified for and they ended up offering me the job when they could have hired anybody locally. That would have saved them money because they didn't have to pay to relocate them. They Hired me and they helped me move out. And here's the thing my passions and the knowledge that I had about photography up until that point opened up the perfect job.
Speaker 1:And and not only that, right, but they, they helped me move to California, which was one of the biggest Hesitations or fears that I had on how I was going to make this possible. And when I tell you I cried so many happy tears I mean I can't even express the amount of happy tears that were cried when I got that phone call but in that moment I just knew, because I had allowed myself to live in that energy of this is happening, right, and I didn't know when it was Going to happen. I didn't know how it was going to happen. I didn't know that I was going to find a company that did Photography stuff. I couldn't have any of that planned, but what I did is I trusted. I trusted the process, I trusted myself and I trusted myself to take the action needed that would allow things to fall into place, While just a few months before, I had been stuck in that belief that I'd have to struggle, that it would have to be hard, I thought I'd have to pinch my pennies, I thought I'd have to go into debt.
Speaker 1:I thought that it would have to be a struggle, but the way that I was able to shift that, the beliefs that I was able to shift, and living in that new energy Really allowed me I think it gave me that permission To believe that it was possible To take inspired action in ways that felt good. Like I said, I was doing everything From envisioning myself living there right like doing all the mindset work, but also taking action. I was excited to apply for jobs because the the opportunity and the thought of me being able to work for a company in the Bay Area and start to like have that financial foundation built while I Restarted my photography business felt exciting to me. So I wasn't begrudgingly applying for jobs. I wasn't like, oh, I'm applying for this, but I wish I could be full-time in my business. I thought what a gift would it be to be able to have an income, have a job, while also being able to rebuild everything right in a brand new market, a new city, a new State and in the other side of the country. And so I was excited and the action that I was taking Felt really good.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing I also want you to know while it was incredible and amazing and I'm so I mean, I'm so entirely eternally grateful for that move, after the move I still had to rebuild my business. So, as beautiful and magical and amazing and as grateful as I was to have that opportunity, I moved out here and all of a sudden, I knew nobody, I had no clients, I had no portfolio that matched. You know, florida to California are very different, vibes like the atmosphere is different, the scenery is different, the weather is different, everything's different. And so, while I was so excited and the momentum was there, I I'd be lying if I said that it didn't present its own challenges for me. First and foremost, I had to completely redefine my pricing strategy.
Speaker 1:California has exponentially higher cost of living than Florida, right, which meant that I had to become aware of and work through a lot of my money blocks and a lot of limiting beliefs that I had unknowingly held around money. Some of these included right, I was terrified of raising my prices to the baseline price of weddings in California. My highest price in Florida was essentially my lowest package when I moved and there was a ton of money limiting money beliefs that I had had and money stories that I had told myself on why I couldn't charge that amount for weddings right, even though I knew that my skills were transferable, even though I knew how to take photos and how to be a good photographer. The overwhelming feeling of being in a new market, not having shot at any of these you know venues or places before, made me feel a bit like an imposter. And to add on top of that, thinking of charging my previous highest price as my lowest price, it just, I mean it. It was a lot. It was a lot for me to take in and I also felt a lot of imposter syndrome around.
Speaker 1:I had a full-time job, right. Part of the what moved me out to California was being able to have a full-time job and so, even though I knew that I deserved to make money for my skill in my business, I had a lot of thoughts telling me but you have a full-time job, you're fully supported with your income, why should you be charging this much money? So there was a ton of money work that I had to do. So there was a ton of money work that I had to work through when it came to restructuring and restarting my business. And I also had to let myself feel a little bit like a beginner again Because even though I had had years of experience right, I had, at this point, been shooting weddings for I don't know four years I, because I didn't have the experience shooting in these venues and locations, in these new places, I had to humble myself a little bit and allow myself to start over in some cases.
Speaker 1:Right, I think sometimes, the longer we've been in business, our ego kind of starts to come up. Right, we sometimes, especially whenever we're going into a new market or moving somewhere new, we have this thought that well, I have the experience and like people should just come to me and people should want to book me and people should want to hire me. Because look At my experience, and I found that coming up a little bit and I had to really humble myself, allow myself to be a beginner again and Look at this new opportunity as a way to grow and explore. I really had to learn how to create these big goals for myself of what I wanted, while also remembering to live in that, taking inspired action. Energy Right, that energy that I had in Florida when I knew that it was inevitable. Right, I knew the big goals were inevitable. I knew that the life I wanted was going to happen. I had to let myself, after the move, start to find that energy again. I had to trust deeply that what was meant for me was not only possible but it was already happening. It was in progress and I had to really detach myself from feeling the need to control the outcome, right.
Speaker 1:Thinking back to Florida, I could have had no idea in January what April was going to look like. I could have had no idea that there was going to be a photography company with a role that I was perfectly qualified for and they were going to move me out. I could have never known that. But how often do we try? And when we have a plan, when we have something we want to do, we try and control how it's going to happen, any outcome that it's going to look like. But how often does that actually happen? If you're anything like me, the answer is not very often. So I had to detach myself from that need of feeling like I needed to control the outcome and I had to just let be what was meant to be. And from that work, I am excited to say eventually this was about five years later I was able to leave my full-time job in tech and become a full-time business owner in 2019. And so obviously, there was a lot that happened in those five years, but, truthfully, what it boiled down to was that honest truth. I had to believe that what was meant for me was happening. I had to release the control of how I thought it was going to happen and I had to just let myself live in the moments as the business was evolving.
Speaker 1:And this journey that I just mentioned is exactly the work that I focus on with my current photography clients, because a lot of them and a lot of you likely can see yourself in this story. Somehow, maybe you're working full-time and you're feeling some imposter syndrome around your pricing and your money, because you feel like you shouldn't be charging a higher amount, because you have a job that fully supports you. Maybe you have a goal to move to a new city, but you're terrified of what that's going to mean as far as starting over or having to rebuild. Maybe you're not moving locations, but maybe you're wanting to move into a new type of photography, a new niche, and you're worried about what that transition is going to look like. How do you start over in that part of your business and build new clients from that place? Maybe you are feeling the pressure of wanting to have the specific outcome and this way that your business looks and you're feeling really attached to the outcome of what it's going to look like and you're struggling to let go and really live in the day-to-day growth that you're experiencing. So, if you can see yourself in any parts of the story, this is what I'm focusing on with my clients. But over the years I have really learned. I've had to learn what's been important to focus on and what's not as important as you're focusing on growth, and not just growth, but sustainable growth, the growth that allows you to keep showing up when things feel hard. The growth that allows you to keep going when you feel like you can't go any further. And whether you're just starting out in your business, maybe you're shifting into a new market. Maybe you're just looking for more sustainable ways to get more clients.
Speaker 1:I really work with my clients to define the ins and outs of what it means to start with what you need and not feel overwhelmed. You know that feeling of I need to buy every course, or I need to purchase every system, or I need to have this in my business if I'm going to succeed. Helping you figure out what you need and what you don't need. Let's eliminate the things that are overwhelming, that are maybe not growth points for you yet, and let's really focus on keeping it simple so that you actually allow yourself to set yourself up for success. We're identifying the goals that you have and to start living in that detached, inspired energy while you go after them. We're helping you feel confident with your money and not feel worried about your business finances.
Speaker 1:This is a big one. For my clients is that confidence around your money, your pricing, and not feeling constantly worried about your finances. We're creating unshakable confidence in your offers and packages. I want you to feel like your offers, your services, your packages are literally the best thing since sliced bread, and I want that to be the energy in which you talk about your offers and your packages. We're creating goal setting strategies that honor your personal values, while also giving you strategic ways to grow. So, really understanding what is it that's important to me, especially in this season. What is it that I want to focus on so that you have strategic ways that you can grow that feel good for you? We're understanding what activities are going to help you grow your business while also allowing you to feel fulfilled along the way and with how you're spending your time. There are going to be certain practices that you can do that will build momentum, that will grow your visibility, but that will also allow you to feel really fulfilled as you're doing it.
Speaker 1:But, at the end of the day, the biggest thing we're doing is we're creating your own version of your wealthy life, and we're talking about how you can embody it every single day. So we're talking about how you can really create that wealth and that freedom in your day to day life, because that's what we're all chasing after, isn't it? We all want to feel that freedom. We want to feel that the life we're living is the dream life. But here's the secret You're likely already living a lot of your dream life now. You're just not realizing it. You're still kind of feeling stuck in the one day when I can do this or when I can achieve this. So what we're going to focus on is creating that version of a wealthy life and embodying it every single day.
Speaker 1:And, as you've heard, by adopting these strategies in my business over the years, over the last 15 years of business which feels crazy to say not only have I been able to move my photography business across the country and completely restart in a brand new market and that was the wedding industry also but I've also allowed myself to shift into a brand new photography market in the last four years. So I actually have my last two weddings of my wedding career this year and I have a strategy in place that is likely going to allow me to match my photography my wedding photography income, but it's actually going to allow me to work less this year as a brand photographer, which just feels so exciting. I also have been able to feel more empowered with how I make money in my business, no longer feeling trapped by needing to feel like others have to find me. I've been able to create systems that allow new work to flow in more organically, and I don't just mean automated systems. I just mean the systems in which, the way I view and approach how I get clients, I have strategies in place that allow it to feel more organic. I've also been able to grow other parts of my business besides just photography things like coaching this podcast. I've done a lot of work in learning about the Enneagram, so I've allowed other parts of my business to also start to grow and, at the same time, creating a more ease field schedule.
Speaker 1:I don't feel guilty, I don't feel shameful for taking time off in my business. I have truly learned what that looks like and how to take time off in a not only a healthy way, but sometimes in the most productive ways. Sometimes, the time that I take off in my business, I'm actually giving myself more creative inflow of energy than had I continued to work and work, and work. So I'm able to do more of the work that lights me up and less of the tasks that leave me feeling drained. And this way of life, this shift that I've been able to make, has not only helped me redefine and create my own version of a wealthy life, but it also serves as this beautiful reminder that our work as business owners is never done. Part of the beauty of being a business owner is that we are constantly evolving and growing, and our goals and our desires are often shifting and evolving as we grow.
Speaker 1:And these strategies aren't just a one and done method. Right, because building a business isn't a one and done process. Our business is a living, breathing extension of who we are, and these frameworks allow you to come back home to yourself, to create the life and the business that feels abundant, fulfilling and purposeful and allowing you to live that life in a new, energized and purpose driven perspective. And I'm just so excited because this podcast is my way of pouring into you and your business, and I cannot wait for you to join me along this journey as we build out and continue to build out this foundation for you and continue to build out the support that you need to create your own dream photography business. And if you're looking for more one on one support, I have coaching programs that'll meet you right where you are, in a supportive environment. They allow you to create the change that you want to see in your business. Whether you're looking for lifetime access, group coaching or one to one coaching, I have offers that'll meet you exactly where you need to be met and, as always, I'm just so honored to be able to join you on this journey and I'm so ready to see all of the changes and the momentum that we create this year as you continue to grow out your business.
Speaker 1:There are so many amazing episodes in store for you as a photographer. So if this was inspiring for you today, if this was helpful, if you can see yourself in the story, just know that there is so much more to come. Thank you, friends, so much for listening into this episode. I hope that it was helpful for you to hear a little bit more about my journey as a photographer and what it has really taken to bring me to where I am today in my business.
Speaker 1:I am so excited to continue to connect and to grow with you and I would be absolutely so grateful if you would share this episode with a friend, another photographer, who might need to hear it. You can tag them on Instagram. Tag me on Instagram. I would love to be able to shout you out, and it just lights me up to get to connect with each of you on a more one to one level. So I would love for you to share this with someone who you think it would be helpful for them to get a little reminder that they have everything that they need to grow the business that they want to grow. Thank you so much for listening in and I'll see you in the next episode.